Iran has promised to support the Iraqi government in securing their country, but has made clear that it wants U.S. troops out of its neighbor's borders. Iranian First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Damascus and the two held a joint press conference afterwards.

Iranian media published broad excerpts of the conference, which stressed Iran's promise to do more for Iraq's security which ultimately affects Iran and the entire region. "Iraq's security is the security of Iran and that of the region," Davoudi said, pointing out that the occupying U.S. forces must leave for Iraq to move towards internal stability. He called sectarian violence "fratricide".

"We wish more prosperity and security for the Iraqi people and will spare no efforts to help them to this end," Davoudi said.

On the other side, the Iraqi Prime Minister said, "One of the crucial issues [in the talks] for the two countries was security challenges. Both countries are striving to reach a conclusion about security challenges; there are, of course, other countries which share our views about confrontation with these challenges in the region," Fars quoted him as saying.

Maliki once lived in exile in Iran and has been reluctant to openly give credit to publicly unverified U.S. claims that Iran provides support for Shi'ite militias in Iraq. Iran has strongly denied such accusations.

The two-day talks concluded by the press conference managed to bring together representatives from the U.N. Security Council, the Arab League and Iraq's neighbors, except for officials from Saudi Arabia. Maliki also met the families of the seven Iranian officials arrested in Iraq by U.S. troops.